This is an issue I have wrestled with for some time. In a recent conversation I did not feel I had articulated my point as well as I should have. So here we go…. Travel is often called the best education - both structured and unintended. The visitor, one would hope, should be the most affected by the experience in a learning context But of course the visitee will also be … [Read more...]
Drugs, Prostitution & the American Dream
I expect I will continue thinking about Darien for some time to come and indeed the region shocked me. It is quite easy to understand why a road has not been punched through to Colombia. The harsh jungle does create a rather natural barrier against smuggling in all forms. What I find difficult to understand is what sort of misery one must feel they are living in. It must be … [Read more...]
The Darien Gap – Contraband and Smuggling
It has turned out to be an adventure, but not perhaps the jungle trek or island hopping adventure I had hope for. After exploring the region as best I could, I went early to the peer to take a boat through rough waters around the point of land that separates Colombia from Panama (on the Caribbean side), to the tiny jungle community of Puerto Obaldia. … [Read more...]